Enchanted and Repelled
by Lyrical Ballads
Summary: [repost] [Beautiful Little Fool oneshot] "I've never had a Hungarian before. But I'm perfectly willing to try it."


**Disclaimer: **_The Mummy _does not belong to me. Story title was borrowed from _The Great Gatsby._

**Author's** **Note: **This story originally belonged to a three-part oneshot collection called _Boats Against the Current_. I only wrote the first two oneshots and have no intention of writing the third one, so I decided to take down _Boats _and repost the two oneshots separately. This is part of my _Beautiful Little Fool _universe and primarily takes place four months before the start of _BLF_. Beni and Lucy have been married for about a year and a half, Rick is still on his travels around the world, and Jonathan and Evelyn have been living in Egypt for a couple of months.

* * *

**Enchanted and Repelled**

"Who were you talkin' to, honey?" Sam Henderson asked as Violet entered the living room.

He sat on the sofa with his shirt sleeves rolled up, polishing the long barrel of a rifle as if it were made of glass. He didn't even notice that Violet had put on a new dress and waved her hair differently that afternoon. He merely glanced at her from beneath the wide brim of his cowboy hat, seeing right through her, then took a bored swig from the glass of whiskey that sat beside him. Violet glared when he wiped his mouth on the bandana tied around his neck.

"Why do you care who I was talking to?" she asked.

"Just wonderin', is all. I heard you on the telephone."

"Well I wasn't talking to anyone important. I'm meeting a friend across town today."

Violet met a lot of friends across town, slipping away to hotel rooms and apartments while her husband remained home in blissful ignorance, thinking he was the only man in her life. She had been making friends across town for years, ever since she married Henderson in that little old chapel in Ohio he picked out himself, since he was too cheap to have a wedding in a big church like she wanted. He said he was saving their money for a trip to Egypt, where he was going to make their fortune digging for treasure, and she married the fool because he sounded so sure of himself. He was so sure he was going to be a rich man down in Egypt, where the streets were apparently flowing with diamonds and rubies, and here he was nearly six years later, selling guns out of the back room like a common criminal.

Henderson slowly wiped his rag along the rifle's handle, oblivious to the smirk on Violet's lips. "You have fun, then," he said. "I've got a fella who's comin' over in a few. Thinks he might like to buy a revolver."

She knew that already. She had been on the telephone with Beni just minutes before, listening to him murmur the most delightfully wicked things in that funny accent of his, and begged him to come over and pretend to be a gun collector so he could meet with her husband. Deceptions like that always gave her such a thrill. Violet caught her reflection in the little mirror hanging on the wall and rummaged around in the purse she carried, hoping to find her favorite lipstick, when a knock came at the door.

Henderson set down his rifle. "That's probably him now."

Another wicked smirk crossed Violet's lips, unnoticed by her husband. "I'll get the door."

She found Beni Gabor standing in the doorway, dressed in a striped grey suit with shiny black shoes, and she found his ugly face easier to bear when he wore such dapper clothes. She didn't spend time with him for his face anyway. Beni was rich and he was married, and there was nothing Violet enjoyed more than taking things that didn't belong to her.

"Hello," said Violet, keeping her tone cool and polite as she looked meaningfully into his eyes. He wasn't attractive at all, but _oh_, she wanted him so badly. "You're here to see my husband?"

"Yes," said Beni, keeping up their polite charade. "Is he home?"

"Over here, Mr. Gabor." Henderson spat out the tobacco he had been chewing, just narrowly missing the floor as it landed in the nearby spittoon, and shook hands with Beni. He absently gestured in Violet's direction. "My wife Violet."

Beni's eyes lingered on Violet a little longer than necessary. "What a lovely wife you have. It is very nice to meet you, Mrs. Henderson."

She offered him a quiet, demure smile, desperately holding back a wild peal of laughter. "It's nice to meet you too, Mr, Gabor."

"C'mon," said Henderson, giving Beni a clap on the shoulder. "Let's head on to the back and I'll show ya that revolver."

"I can hardly wait," said Beni, though only Violet detected the sarcasm in his voice.

He waited until Henderson wasn't looking, then reached for Violet and gave her backside a squeeze. She held in a giggle and gave him a playful swat. "_Later!_" she whispered.

Beni stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and trailed after Henderson to the back room, where he would surely be bored out of his head as Henderson described his guns in excruciating detail. Violet was glad she was spared from _that_ little ordeal and flounced over to a chair, enjoying the way her new skirt settled across her knees when she sat down. She could have dozens of new skirts, now that she was having fun with a man like Beni, and it would all come out of the pocket of his rich, perfect wife who spent all of her rich, perfect days in the lap of luxury.

There was nothing more thrilling to Violet than a rich man who had to spend his wife's money.

She finally found her favorite lipstick and had just finished touching up her lips when another knock came at the door. She glanced down the hall, where Henderson and Beni were still shut away in the gun room, and heaved a little sigh before getting up and yanking the door open.

"Afternoon, Violet," said Dave Daniels. He took off his hat and held it in his hands, looking at her like a dog hoping for a handout. "Sam around?"

"He's in the back with a customer," Violet coolly replied. "You'll have to wait."

He continued to stand there with his hat clutched in his hands, looking at her with an intensity that used to excite her once upon a time, and she longed to slam the door in his face. "I wish you'd come around sometime," he said.

"Dave, honey, I've told you a hundred times. I'm done with that game."

"You'll never be done. You just found somebody who's more fun to play with."

Violet smiled. "Somebody richer."

"Who is he?"

"Nobody you would know."

Daniels' patience, which was already in short supply to begin with, was quickly wearing thin. "Doggone it, Violet. I know you wanna get outta this place. Pack your bags and I'll take ya to Sa Francisco, Paris, Rome, wherever you wanna go."

"And live in some flea-infested, two-bit motel?" said Violet, looking with distaste at his scuffed boots and his plain black tie. "If I'm going to leave this lousy country, I'm going to do it in style."

"I don't know where you got those high-and-mighty notions of yours, but you don't got no right to be uppity."

"Oh, I don't?"

"No," said Daniels, glaring at her. "You don't. And I don't know who this new fella of yours is either, but you're gonna wish you'd stayed with me when you had the chance. Money don't buy everything, Violet."

God, the man was in love with her. She only fooled around with him a few times here and there, since he was her husband's friend and she thought it would be exciting to get in bed with him, and he had the nerve to fall in love with her. It was pathetic. She thought of Beni, who looked upon the world with selfish eyes and rarely spared a thought for anyone besides himself, and she knew she would never have to worry about Beni falling in love with her, or making an ass of himself over her. Love was such a pesky business anyway.

"Sam will be back soon," she told Daniels. "And I'd hate to be in your shoes if he catches you talking to me like this."

He took his cowboy hat and shoved it onto his head, still glowering at her. "You're gonna be one sorry woman, Violet. Just you watch."

She watched him storm down the hall until he disappeared into the elevator. A man like that had no business falling in love with a woman like her, but Violet supposed that Daniels had his uses. She had been with Daniels on the night she met Beni, after all.

Two weeks ago she slipped out of the apartment in the early evening, having fed Henderson some story about taking a long stroll in the fresh night air, and she convinced Daniels to take her to a restaurant he could barely afford. He was so out of place among the glittering upper class that dined there, wearing his scuffed old boots and sitting with his elbows on the table like a perfect savage. He even had the audacity to chew tobacco until Violet made him stop.

"Can't even read half the things on this darn menu," he said, frowning down at the words printed in front of him.

"It's French, honey," said Violet. "All the best restaurants write their menus in French."

"Well this ain't France. Thank God Almighty for that."

"If you don't like it, you can go hungry."

"I never said I wasn't gonna eat nothin'," said Daniels. "I just wish they'd hand out menus a fella can actually read."

They had been going out to dinner and fooling around for less than two months and she was already getting tired of him. He bored her with his abrasive speech and his quick temper, and even the way he made love to her was boring. He was a little too much like her husband. The two of them were cut from the same exact cloth.

Violet looked away from Daniels, weary of the way he frowned at that menu like it had personally offended him, and she studied the faces of the richly dressed people who ate and drank and chatted in their nice, expensive clothes and their fancy jewelry. Her eyes landed on the most unusual couple sitting nearby, a man and a woman seated alone at a table, and she couldn't help but watch them in fascinated silence. The man was an odd, rather ugly fellow in a dark suit that looked a little too large for him, while the woman was a young, pretty thing with a stylish brown bob and sparkling eyes. Violet wondered how such an unsightly man had managed to snag such a lovely woman. Surely there was _something_ exciting and irresistible about him that made up for his looks.

The longer Violet watched this mismatched couple, the more she wanted to speak to the strange man with the beautiful companion, and she made an effort to catch his eye. Daniels was lighting himself a cigarette, too busy to realize what she was doing, and she got a little thrill when the man finally looked right at her. It meant nothing at first. He looked away from her and absorbed himself in his glass of wine, but then Violet caught his eye again. He took a little more notice of her, holding her gaze for a couple of moments longer, then looked away again when the lovely woman opened her lovely red lips and spoke to him.

"Gosh-darn waiter's taking forever," Daniels remarked after taking an impatient drag on his cigarette.

Violet found it funny that he didn't swear in front of women, unless he was truly upset. He put his elbows on the table and didn't wipe his boots before going indoors, and yet he couldn't swear in front of a woman.

"He's obviously busy," said Violet. "You can wait a little."

"I'm hungry as a bear right now. I thought this was a classy joint."

"It _is_."

"Well their service ain't so classy."

Violet held back a sigh and turned her attention back to the nearby couple. The man was looking at her now, watching her with the hint of a smirk on his ugly little face, and Violet wanted him more than ever. With a face like that, he _had_ to be exciting in the sack for a beautiful woman to spend time with him. Violet made sure Daniels wasn't looking, then gave the man a little smile and a wink before turning away and pretending to read her menu.

"Say, I'm going to go powder my nose," she said a moment later.

"What if the waiter shows up while you're gone?" Daniels protested.

"Order something for me."

"Heck, Violet. I can't even read the menu."

"Then point at something and the waiter will read it for you," Violet said, getting up from her seat. "Now if you'll excuse me."

She walked past the couple nearby and looked straight at the man, then subtly motioned towards the restaurant entrance, which was off in the distance where Daniels wouldn't see them. Her heart beat faster with excitement as she walked through the restaurant, trying to look as if nothing was out of the ordinary, and when she glanced over her shoulder she saw the man following discreetly behind. She wondered what excuse he had made to his woman—whoever she was—then decided she didn't care.

The night was chilly when Violet stepped outside the restaurant, but there was nobody around and she stood against the building with her arms wrapped around herself, waiting for the front doors to open. She heard footsteps on the pavement and he appeared, looking shifty and uncertain until he spotted Violet, and his lips curved into a smirk when he saw her waiting for him. He really was the most funny looking man, even under the dark starlit sky, but his clothes were expensive and in good taste. Her husband wouldn't be caught dead in such a nice suit.

They looked at each other for a moment, curiosity mingled with desire, and at last Violet spoke.

"What's your name, honey?"

"It's Beni," he said, taking a step closer. "What's yours?"

She was surprised by his voice. She figured he might be American or English, since he was dressed so well, but he had a strange accent she couldn't place.

"Violet," she said, her heart pounding faster than ever. "Where on earth are you from?"

"Hungary."

"I've never had a Hungarian before," said Violet, boldly taking him by the hand so she could pull him in close. "But I'm perfectly willing to try it. I've been watching you, you know."

"I noticed," Beni said in his odd-sounding whine.

She wrapped her arms around his skinny frame, breathing in his expensive cologne, and dropped her voice to a murmur in his ear. "And I've decided that I'll die if I can't have you just once."

He pushed her against the wall and kissed her, making her gasp a little with the sudden force of his mouth against hers. It hurt a bit when he kissed her, but she liked that. It had been so long since she really, truly _felt_ anything when a man touched her, and she was consumed with a desperate, wild need for more than just a kiss.

"Do you have a telephone?" she asked breathlessly when they broke apart, looking up at Beni with round eyes.

He was still as ugly as ever, but it didn't matter anymore. "Yes," said Beni.

"Give me your number, will you? I'll call you as soon as I can."

She dug a pen out of her handbag and wrote his number on a pack of cigarettes, then took a moment to straighten her dress and fix her hair. Beni was watching her with a slight frown on his face, as if he could hardly believe she had allowed him to kiss her like that, and she supposed she couldn't blame him. He probably wasn't used to women throwing themselves at him.

"I'll go back inside first," said Violet. "Wouldn't want your lady friend to get suspicious."

"My wife," Beni said with a smirk.

Goodness, the man was married. He really _must_ be a fantastic lover and Violet's whole body ached to discover if it was true. "Well we wouldn't want your _wife_ to get suspicious," she said, correcting herself, and she realized she was glad he was married. It was always more fun with married men.

"What about that man you're with?" Beni asked. "Is he your husband?"

"No, thank God," said Violet. "He's just a buffoon, and I'm through with him."

She brushed past Beni and returned to the restaurant, back to the table where Daniels was waiting, and tried not to watch when Beni came in a minute later. She thought of him for the rest of the evening, impatient to dial the number she scribbled on her pack of cigarettes, and when the night was over she politely told Daniels she didn't want to see him anymore.

It was true that money didn't buy everything, but it sure as hell could buy a lot.


End file.
